"Great Things"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

(thanks to my dear Brother and Friend Hugh for inspiration on this one.)

"Great Things"

   In response to Saturday's message, a good friend made the point that if we don't perceive great things to be happening in our lives (according to our definition), we can become discouraged in our walk with the Lord.  This is certainly the case, which makes it absolutely vital that we realize the Biblical standard and meaning of "great things."  As the Christmas season begins, we do well to realize that it bears clear witness to the truth of God's frequently quiet and inauspicious working.

    "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger" (Luke 2:12).

    From birth, to 30 years of obscurity, to rejection by His own people, to suffering and death on a Roman cross, to resurrection appearances seen by enough to confirm, but not to the masses, and now to a powerful, but unseen ministry of intercession in the Heavenlies, the Lord Jesus Christ bears witness to the fact of how quietly our Heavenly Father often works in our hearts, our lives, and the world.  Certainly He parts a Red Sea when necessary, and even stops the sun in its tracks.  However, His administration of "great things" will always be missed by the masses who seek God on their terms rather than His.  The same can be true of His trusting children if we fail to remember that a manger rather than a palace welcomed Him into the world, and execution rather than exaltation escorted Him out of it.  "He is despised and rejected of men… and we hid as it were our faces from Him" (Isaiah 53:3).

   If we define "great things" from God according to human definition, we will wait a long time before seeing them.  Or we will seek to manufacture them ourselves by carnal means and devices.  The former leads to discouragement; the latter results in deception.  Again, Christmas proclaims that God's present working most often flows as subterranean streams that bring life to trusting hearts, but frustrate those who lust for noise, pomp, and circumstance.  Even a cursory reading of the New Testament confirms such truth.  The Day will come for open and mighty manifestation of the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 1:7).  This is not that day.  This is rather the epoch when God's trusting sons and daughters in Christ "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).  Certainly we rejoice when our Lord parts a Red Sea or stops the sun.  But we also rejoice when He quietly graces the mangers in our lives, those places where we behold Him not with our eyes, but with our hearts.

"Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which Thou knowest not."

(Jeremiah 33:3)

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."

(John 7:24)

   

Weekly Memory Verse

  "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."

(John 7:24)

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